(a)
Findings.--The Congress finds that--
(1)
some 43,000,000 Americans have one or more physical or mental
disabilities, and
this number is increasing as the population as a whole is growing older;
(2)
historically, society has tended to isolate and segregate individuals
with
disabilities, and, despite some improvements, such forms of
discrimination
against individuals with disabilities continue to be a serious and
pervasive
social problem;
(3)
discrimination against individuals with disabilities persists in such
critical
areas as employment, housing, public accommodations, education,
transportation,
communication, recreation, institutionalization, health services,
voting, and
access to public services;
(4)
unlike individuals who have experienced discrimination on the basis of
race,
color, sex, national origin, religion, or age, individuals who have
experienced
discrimination on the basis of disability have often had no legal
recourse to
redress such discrimination;
(5)
individuals with disabilities continually encounter various forms of
discrimination, including outright intentional exclusion, the
discriminatory effects
of architectural, transportation, and communication barriers,
overprotective
rules and policies, failure to make modifications to existing
facilities and
practices, exclusionary qualification standards and criteria,
segregation, and
relegation to lesser services, programs, activities, benefits, jobs, or
other
opportunities;
(6)
census data, national polls, and other studies have documented that
people with
disabilities, as a group, occupy an inferior status in our society, and
are
severely disadvantaged socially, vocationally, economically, and
educationally;
(7)
individuals with disabilities are a discrete and insular minority who
have been
faced with restrictions and limitations, subjected to a history of
purposeful
unequal treatment, and relegated to a position of political
powerlessness in
our society, based on characteristics that are beyond the control of
such
individuals and resulting from stereotypic assumptions not truly
indicative of
the individual ability of such individuals to participate in, and
contribute
to, society;
(8)
the
Nation's proper goals regarding individuals with disabilities are to
assure
equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and
economic
self-sufficiency for such individuals; and
(9)
the
continuing existence of unfair and unnecessary discrimination and
prejudice
denies people with disabilities the opportunity to compete on an equal
basis
and to pursue those opportunities for which our free society is
justifiably
famous, and costs the United States billions of dollars in unnecessary
expenses
resulting from dependency and nonproductivity.
(b)
Purpose.--It is the purpose of this Act--
(1)
to
provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination
of
discrimination against individuals with disabilities;
(2)
to
provide clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing
discrimination against individuals with disabilities;
(3)
to
ensure that the Federal Government plays a central role in enforcing
the
standards established in this Act on behalf of individuals with
disabilities;
and
(4)
to
invoke the sweep of congressional authority, including the power to
enforce the
fourteenth amendment and to regulate commerce, in order to address the
major
areas of discrimination faced day-to-day by people with disabilities.
As used in this Act:
(1)
Auxiliary aids and services.--The term "auxiliary aids and services"
includes--
(A)
qualified interpreters or other effective methods of making aurally
delivered
materials available to individuals with hearing impairments;
(B)
qualified readers, taped texts, or other effective methods of making
visually
delivered materials available to individuals with visual impairments;
(C)
acquisition or modification of equipment or devices; and
(D)
other similar services and actions.
(2)
Disability.--The term "disability" means, with respect to an
individual--
(A) a
physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of
the
major life activities of such individual;
(B) a
record of such an impairment; or
(C)
being regarded as having such an impairment.
(3)
State.--The term "State" means each of the several States, the
District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American
Samoa,
the Virgin Islands, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.